Bob Burridge at the Granbury TX 4 day workshop April 12-15, 2011 and my 9th Robert Burridge workshop and I'm scheduled for 2 more at Dena's Ranch in August. The above warm up paintings are on gessoed watercolor paper with acrylic with some gold paint and that makes them very hard to photograph. Why so many workshops? He says he doesn't teach painting he teaches self esteem and most of the students come away from his class ready to try new methods and experiment with techniques they've never tried before. Painting is not something you get as there is nothing to get, just do a lot of paintings and that includes a lot of bad paintings - just take a peek under my bed!! What makes a good idea for a painting - something that excites you. One of my favorite Bob quotes that I repeat often "It's all been done before, but not by you." He says working bigger (larger) will make you looser and sometimes he varnishes the painting when it's 3/4 done and then keeps on going. We use his color wheel to choose our color and a composition chart to choose our design, write down our intentions, and then play and have fun. If it doesn't look right, keep painting until it does. Bob and Kate have a great Artsy Fartsy Newsletter, that's free and you can sign up on their site. Click the link to see the current issue and yours truly is in this one with a photo of her recent collages from the Derek Gores workshop. It was pretty insane what I did. I packed my car for the Burridge workshop and left it parked at DFW airport when I flew to Derek Gores Portrait workshop in FL. I flew in Sunday evening and headed to Dallas ready for the Burridge workshop on Monday without going back home. I brought in the FL collage to show the class and Bob. This is the cover of one of the small Strathmore 400 series 4 x 6 in drawing pads I'm recording some images in. Check my last blog post for more information. I can see that I will fill up these little books pretty quickly and I've decided to collage on the front and cover with clear mailing tape - something quick and easy. On this one I put about Bob's Granbury workshop and the KE stands for the Kathleen Elsey workshop I've just finished in Santa Barbara.This partial page is in a 9 x 12 journal that I use to record daily or weekly events and memories. This week Krogers had 12 oz containers of blackberries on special for $2.88 and it brought back memories of my mom picking us blackberries for a delicious cobbler and as an elementary librarian one of my favorite books to read the younger ones was Peter Rabbit. I will talk about how I journal and why at Dena's for my "Love Your Life" workshop May 19 and 20th. The class is $200 and you can contact Dena Wenmohs for more info and the info that is shown 3 day here will be changed soon to a 2 day and the cost is less.